Apple has released iTunes 11, the long-awaited redesign of its popular media management, purchasing and syncing software. iTunes 11 is available now as a free download for Mac OS X and Windows through Apple's software update utilities and www.apple.com/itunes.

iTunes 11 includes numerous new features, including:

New library views. Your collection has never looked smarter.iTunes now features simplified views of exactly what you want. Looking for an album? Click Music and thatís all you'll see. Do the same for movies, TV shows, apps ó and everything else. Itís browsing made more intuitive.

Expanded view. See it. Play it. Explore it.Select one of your albums and now it will expand in place. That means you can see all the songs on the album, click Play, and keep right on browsing without having to click back to your library. Youíll also see In the Store recommendations for similar albums youíll want to check out.

New Mini Player. Small on space. Big on control.We squeezed more features into an even smaller MiniPlayer. Now you can click the Up Next button to see which songs are playing next. And if what you see isnít what youíre in the mood for, you can search your collection and choose a different song ó without having to open your library.

Bonus Features. Get instant recommendations. And choose what's Up Next.Good recommendations are easy to come by, thanks to In the Store picks. Just select an album, artist, or genre you like, and iTunes will suggest similar music you might never have found on your own. Already know what you want to hear? The new Up Next feature in iTunes lets you select a song and easily queue it to play next. Or last.

Apple has also updated the iOS Remote app to take advantage of some of the new features in iTunes 11.